Notes and Queries, Number 47, September 21, 1850 eBook

“Fourthly, that the woman was
made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made
out of his head to top him, nor out of his feet to
be trampled upon by him; but out of his side to be
equal with him, under his arm to be protected,
and near his heart to be beloved.”

IOTA.

Beau Brummel’s Ancestry.—­Mr.
Jesse some years back did ample justice to the history
of a “London celebrity,” George Brummell;
but, from what he there stated, the following “Note”
will, I feel assured, be a novelty to him. At
the time that Brummell was considered in everything
the arbiter elegantiarum, the writer of this
has frequently heard Lady Monson (the widow of the
second lord, and an old lady who, living to the age
of ninety-seven, had a wonderful fund of interesting
recollections) say, that this ruler of fashion was
the descendant of a very excellent servant in the
family. Not long ago, some old papers of the family
being turned over, proofs corroborative of this came
to light. William Brummell, from the year 1734
to 1764, was the faithful and confidential servant
of Charles Monson, brother of the first lord:
the period would identify him with the grandfather
of the Beau; the only doubt was, that as Mr. Jesse
has ascertained that William Brummell, the grandfather,
was, in the interval above given, married, had a son
William, and owned a house in Bury Street, how
far these facts were compatible with his remaining
as a servant living with Charles Monson, both in town
and country. Now, in 1757, Professor Henry Monson
of Cambridge being dangerously ill, his brother Charles
sent William Brummell down, as a trustworthy person,
to attend to him; and in a letter from Brummell to
his master, he, with many other requisitions, wishes
that there may be sent down to him a certain glass
vessel, very useful for invalids to drink out of,
and which, if not in Spring Gardens, “may be
found in Bury Street. It was used when
Billy was ill.” From the familiarity
of the word “Billy,” he must be speaking
of his son. These facts are certainly corroborative
of the old dowager’s statement.

M(2).

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QUERIES.

GRAY’S ELEGY AND DODSLEY POEMS.

I have here, in the country, few editions of Gray’s
works by me, and those not the best; for instance,
I have neither of those by the Rev. J. Mitford (excepting
his Aldine edition, in one small volume), which, perhaps,
would render my present Query needless. It relates
to a line, or rather a word in the Elegy, which
is of some importance. In the second stanza,
as the poem is usually divided (though Mason does not
give it in stanzas, because it was not so originally
written), occurs,

“Save where the beetle wheels his
droning flight.”

And thus the line stands in all the copies (five)
I am able at this moment to consult. But referring
to Dodsley’s Collection of Poems, vol.
iv., where it comes first, the epithet applied to “flight”
is not “droning,” but drony—­